Cramer's Mad Money - Jerry's Out...Yahoo! (11/18/08)

Stocks discussed in the in-depth session of Jim Cramer’s Mad Money TV program, Tuesday November 18.

Yahoo (YHOO), Hewlett- Packard (HPQ), Microsoft (MSFT),Citigroup (C)

 With the market behaving like a roller coaster, it is important to appreciate good news. While Hewlett-Packard’s solid earnings sparked a rally, the market dropped 372 points suddenly only to pop up again the last hour of trading. One piece of good news amid the volatility is Cramer’s number one Hall of Shamer, Jerry Yang, is stepping down as CEO of Yahoo. Cramer thinks this departure is a cause for celebration because Yang was like a “value wrecking ball.” As a result, Yahoo has jumped 8.6% on the news and Cramer thinks, with the help of Carl Icahn and Steve Ballmer, a deal with Microsoft may go through.

 

Cramer needs to replace Yang, and who better than Citigroup CEO, Vikram Pandit: “The most under-performing, value-destroying burden to shareholders of a CEO out there." Cramer feels he gave Pandit a fair chance since the CEO was left with the mess made his predecessor and former Wall of Shamer Chuck Prince. Even though Pandit has been occupying his position for less than a year, Citi’s stock has declined a staggering 75%, and the “complacent chief” has only done one equity offering so far. Pandit has said the company is “well capitalized” although reports show the bank is so highly leveraged that investors are concerned. A generous $25 billion bailout from the government has failed to save the stock from an “unbelievable” slide into the single-digits. Pandit has also been responsible for four consecutive quarters of “enormous losses” and “tens of billions of dollars worth of write-downs,” to the point where Cramer wonders if Pandit thinks perhaps that “losses are good things.”

 So on the Mad Money Wall of Shame, It’s Goodbye to Jerry Yang, Hello Vikram Pandit.

 

Seeking Alpha publishes a summary of Jim Cramer's stock picks every day including: Mad Money Recap, Lightning Round and his Stop Trading! Picks.

Get Cramer's Picks by email-- it's free and takes only a few seconds to sign up.

Seeking Alpha is not affiliated with Jim Cramer, CNBC or TheStreet.com

Comments

[InspectorFox:]

That's some harsh words for Vik Pandit. I am totally in agreement with Cramer on this... Pandit has no clue how to put life into Citigroup. It will be nice for the shareholders if he steps down or is ousted by the Saudis.

2008 Nov 19 03:44 PM